Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region III
SAPANG PALAY NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEETS in English 9

Quarter 4 – LAS # 4

Name of Learner: Date:

Grade Level: Section:

REACT TO LAY VALUE JUDGMENT ON CRITICAL ISSUES THAT DEMAND

SOUND ANALYSIS AND CALL FOR PROMPT ACTIONS

Learning Competencies:
React to lay value judgment on critical issues that demand sound analysis and
call for prompt actions
K – Define value judgements
K – Recognize faulty logic

Background Information for Learners:

A. About the Author

Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American
playwright and essayist in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays
are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from
the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his
work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the
short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.

Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and early
1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the
House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller
received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates.[1]
[2] He received the Prince of Asturias Award, the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2002 and the
Jerusalem Prize in 2003,[3] as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.

B. About the Play

Death of a Salesman, a play in “two acts and a requiem” by Arthur Miller, written in
1948 and produced in 1949. Miller won a Pulitzer Prize for the work, which he described as
“the tragedy of a man who gave his life, or sold it” in pursuit of the American Dream.

After many years on the road as a traveling salesman, Willy Loman realizes he has
been a failure as a father and a husband. His sons, Happy and Biff, are not successful—on
his terms (being “well liked”) or any others. His career fading, Willy escapes into dreamy
reminiscences of an idealized past. In the play’s climactic scene, Biff prepares to leave
home, starts arguing with Willy, confesses that he has spent three months in jail, and
mocks his

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father’s belief in “a smile and a shoeshine.” Willy, bitter and broken, his illusions shattered,
commits suicide.

Vocabulary Enrichment

WORD MEANING
crestfallen Adjective: dejected; dispirited; discouraged.
elegiac Adjective: expressing sorrow or lamentation
flunk Verb: fail a class in school
gilt-edged Adjective: of the highest or best quality, kind, etc.
gregarious outgoing; friendly
hallucination an experience that does not exist outside of the mind

idyllic Adjective: suitable for or suggestive of an idyll; charmingly simple

or rustic
integral Adjective: necessary part of the whole
laconic Adjective: using few words; expressing much in few words; concise

megalomania Noun: obsession with oneself

mercurial Adjective: volatile; changeable
racket Noun: illegal organized activity
Regents Noun: New York State exams, required to graduate from high
School
remiss Adjective: careless; not attending to duties
requiem Noun: the Roman Catholic Mass celebrated for the repose of the
souls of the dead.
simonize Verb: to shine or polish to a high sheen, esp. with wax

Supreme Court Noun: the highest court of law in America; the head of the judicial
branch of the American government
The Great Noun: an economic turn back in the 1930s after the 1929 stock
Depression market crash

valise Noun: a small bag used as hand luggage

wistful Adjective: sad; nostalgic
Yiddish Noun: a German language with elements of Hebrew and Slavic
languages

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Directions: Read the summary below then work on the activities that follow:

Death of a Salesman Summary

Willy Loman, a mercurial sixty-year old salesman with calluses on his hands, returns
home tired and confused. His wife Linda greets him, but worries that he has smashed the
car. He reassures her that nothing has happened, but tells her that he only got as far as
Yonkers and does not remember all of the details of his trip; he kept swerving onto the
shoulder of the road, and had to drive slowly to return home. Linda tells him that he needs to
rest his mind, and that he should work in New York, but he feels that he is not needed there.
He thinks that if Frank Wagner were alive he would be in charge of New York, but his son,
Howard, does not appreciate him as much. Linda tells him how Happy, his younger son, took
Biff, his eldest son, out on a double-date, and it was nice to see them both at home. She
reminds Willy not to lose his temper with Biff, but Willy feels that there is an undercurrent of
resentment in Biff. Linda says that Biff is crestfallen and admires Willy. They argue about
whether or not Biff is lazy, and Willy believes that Biff is a person who will get started later in
life, like Edison or B.F. Goodrich.

Biff Loman, at thirty-four, is well-built but not at all self-assured. Happy, two years
younger, is equally tall and powerful, but is confused because he has never risked failure.
The two brothers discuss their father, thinking that his condition is deteriorating. Biff wonders
why his father mocks him, but Happy says that he merely wants Biff to live up to his
potential. Biff claims he has had twenty or thirty different jobs since he left home before the
war, but has been fired from each. He reminisces about herding cattle and wistfully
remembers working outdoors. Biff worries that he is still merely a boy, while Happy says that
despite the fact that he has his own car, apartment, and plenty of women he is still
unfulfilled. Happy believes that he should not have to take orders at work from men over
whom he is physically superior. He also talks about how he has no respect for the women he
seduces, and really wants a woman with character, such as their mother. Biff thinks that he
may try again to work for Bill Oliver, for whom he worked years ago but quit after stealing a
carton of basketballs from him.

The play shifts in time to the Loman house years before, when Biff and Happy were
teenagers. Willy reminds the teenage Biff not to make promises to any girls, because they
will always believe what you tell them and he is too young to consider them seriously. Happy
brags that he is losing weight, while Biff shows Willy a football he took from the locker room.
Willy claims that someday he'll have his own business like Charley, their next door neighbor.
His business will be bigger than Charley's, because Charley is "liked, but not well-liked."
Willy brags about meeting the mayor of Providence and knowing the finest people in New
England. Bernard, Charley's son, enters and tells Willy that he is worried that Biff will fail
math class and not be able to attend UVA. Willy tells Bernard not to be a pest and to leave.
After Bernard leaves, Willy tells his sons that Bernard, like Charley, is liked but not well-liked.
Willy claims that, although Bernard gets the best grades in school, in the business world it is
personality that matters and that his sons will succeed. After the boys leave, Linda enters
and Willy discusses his worry that people don't respect him. Linda reassures him and points
out that his sons idolize him.

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 Miller returns to the more recent past for a short scene that takes place in a hotel
room in Boston. A nameless woman puts on a scarf and Willy tells her that he gets lonely
and worries about his business. The woman claims that she picked Willy for his sense of
humor, and Willy promises to see her the next time he is in Boston.

Willy, back in the kitchen with Linda, scolds her for mending her own stocking,
claiming that she should not have to do such menial things. He goes out on the porch, where
he tells Bernard to give Biff the answers to the Regents exam. Bernard refuses because it is
a State exam. Linda tells Willy that Biff is too rough with the girls, while Bernard says that Biff
is driving without a license and will flunk math. Willy, who hears the voice of the woman from
the hotel room, screams at Linda that there is nothing wrong with Biff, and asks her if she
wants her son to be a worm like Bernard. Linda, in tears, exits into the living room.

The play returns to the present, where Willy tells Happy how he nearly drove into a
kid in Yonkers, and wonders why he didn't go to Alaska with his brother Ben, who ended up
with diamond mines and came out of the jungle rich at the age of twenty-one. Happy tells his
father that he will enable him to retire. Charley enters, and he and Willy play cards. Charley
offers Willy a job, which insults him, and they argue over the ceiling that Willy put up in his
living room. Willy tells Charley that Ben died several weeks ago in Africa. Willy hallucinates
that Ben enters, carrying a valise and umbrella, and asks about their mother. Charley
becomes unnerved by Willy's hallucination and leaves.

The play returns to the past, where Willy introduces his sons to Ben, whom he calls a
great man. Ben in turn boasts that his father was a great man and inventor. Willy shows off
his sons to Ben, who tells them never to fight fair with a stranger, for they will never get out
of the jungle that way. Charley reprimands Willy for letting his sons steal from the nearby
construction site, but Willy says that his kids are a couple of "fearless characters." While
Charley says that the jails are full of fearless characters, Ben says that so is the stock
exchange.

The play returns to the present, where Happy and Biff ask Linda how long Willy has
been talking to himself. Linda claims that this has been going on for years, and she would
have told Biff if she had had an address at which she could contact him. She confronts Biff
about his animosity toward Willy, but Biff claims that he is trying to change his behavior. He
tells Linda that she should dye her hair again, for he doesn't want his mother to look old.
Linda asks Biff if he cares about Willy; if he does not, he cannot care about her. Finally, she
tells her sons that Willy has attempted suicide by trying to drive his car off a bridge, and by
hooking a tube up to the gas heater in the basement. She says that Willy is not a great man,
but is a human being and "attention must be paid" to him. Biff relents and promises not to
fight with his father. He tells his parents that he will go to see Bill Oliver to talk about a
sporting goods business he could start with Happy. Willy claims that if Biff had stayed with
Oliver he would be on top by now.

The next day, Willy sits in the kitchen, feeling rested for the first time in months. Linda
claims that Biff has a new, hopeful attitude, and the two dream of buying a little place in the
country. Willy says that he will talk to Howard Wagner today and ask to be taken off the
road. As soon as Willy leaves, Linda gets a phone call from Biff. She tells him that the pipe
Willy connected to the gas heater is gone.

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 At the office of Howard Wagner, Willy's boss, Howard shows Willy his new wire
recorder as Willy attempts to ask for a job in New York. Howard insists that Willy is a road
man, but Willy claims that it is time for him to be more settled. He has the right to it because
he has been in the firm since Howard was a child, and even named him. Willy claims that
there is no room for personality or friendship in the salesman position anymore, and begs for
any sort of salary, giving lower and lower figures. Willy insists that Howard's father made
promises to him. Howard leaves, and Willy leans on his desk, turning on the wire recorder.
This frightens Willy, who shouts for Howard. Howard returns, exasperated, and fires Willy,
telling him that he needs a good, long rest and should rely on his sons instead of working.

Willy hallucinates that Ben enters and Linda, as a young woman, tells Willy that he
should stay in New York. Not everybody has to conquer the world and Frank Wagner
promised that Willy will someday be a member of the firm. Willy tells the younger versions of
Biff and Happy that it's "who you know" that matters. Bernard arrives, and begs Biff to let him
carry his helmet to the big game at Ebbets Field, while Willy becomes insulted that Charley
may have forgotten about the game.

The play returns to the present day, where the adult Bernard sits in his father's office.
His father's secretary, Jenny, enters and tells Bernard that Willy is shouting in the hallway.
Willy talks to Bernard who will argue a case in Washington soon and whose wife has just
given birth to their second son. Willy wonders why Biff's life ended after the Ebbets Field
game, and Bernard asks why Willy didn't make Biff to go summer school so that he could go
to UVA. Bernard pinpoints the timing of Biff's failures to his visit to his father in New England,
after which Biff burned his UVA sneakers. He wonders what happened during that visit.
Charley enters, and tells Willy that Bernard will argue a case in front of the Supreme Court.
Charley offers Willy a job, which he refuses out of pride. Charley criticizes Willy for thinking
that personality is the only thing that matters in business. Willy remarks that a person is
worth more dead than alive, and tells Charley that, even though they dislike one another,
Charley is the only friend he has.

At the restaurant where Willy is to meet his sons, Happy flirts with a woman and tells
her that Biff is a quarterback with the New York giants. Biff admits to Happy that he did a
terrible thing during his meeting with Bill Oliver. Bill did not remember Biff, who pocketed his
fountain pen before he left. Biff insists that they tell their father about this tonight. Willy
arrives and tells his sons that he was fired. Although Biff tries to lie to Willy about his
meeting, Biff and Willy fight. Biff finally gives up and tries to explain. As this occurs, Willy
hallucinates about arguing with the younger version of Biff. Miss Forsythe, the woman with
whom Happy was flirting, returns with another woman and prepares to go out on a double
date with Happy and Biff. Happy denies that Willy is their father.

Willy imagines being back in the hotel room in Boston with the woman. The teenage
Biff arrives at the hotel and tells Willy that he failed math class, and begs his father to talk to
Mr. Birnbaum. Biff hears the woman, who is hiding in the bathroom. Willy lies to Biff, telling
him that the woman is merely there to take a shower because she is staying in the next
room and her shower is broken. Biff realizes what is going on. Willy throws the woman out,
and she yells at him for breaking the promises he made to her. Willy admits the affair to Biff,
but promises that the woman meant nothing to him and that he was lonely.

5
 At the restaurant, the waiter helps Willy and tells him that his sons left with two
women. Willy insists on finding a seed store so that he can do some planting. When Biff and
Happy return home, they give their mother flowers. She asks them if they care whether their
father lives or dies, and says that they would not even abandon a stranger at the restaurant
as they did their father. Willy is planting in the garden. He imagines talking to Ben about his
funeral, and claims that people will come from all over the country to his funeral, because he
is well known. Ben says that Willy will be a coward if he commits suicide. Willy tells Biff that
he cut his life down for spite, and refuses to take the blame for Biff's failure. Biff confronts
him about the rubber tube attached to the gas heater, and tells his mother that it was he, not
Willy, who took it away. Biff also admits that his parents could not contact him because he
was in jail for three months. Biff insists that men like he and Willy are a dime a dozen, but
Willy claims otherwise. Biff cries for his father, asking him to give up his dreams, but Willy is
merely amazed that he would cry for his father. Happy vows to get married and settle down,
while everybody but Willy goes to sleep. Willy talks to Ben, then rushes out of the house and
speeds out away in his car. Happy and Biff come downstairs in jackets, while Linda walks
out in mourning clothes and places flowers on Willy's grave.

Only his wife, sons, and Charley attend Willy's funeral. Linda wonders where
everybody else is, and says that they have made their final house payment and are free and
clear after thirty-five years. Biff claims that Willy had the wrong dreams, but Charley says
that a salesman must dream, and that for a salesman there is no rock bottom in life. Biff asks
Happy to leave the city with him, but Happy vows to stay in New York and prove that his
father did not die in vain. Everybody leaves but Linda, who remains at the grave and talks
about how she made the final house payment.

Activity 1
Directions: Complete the graphic organizer below that must contain the elements of the
play. Substitute the details given to the spaces provided. Use a separate sheet of paper.

Willy, Biff, Happy, Linda, Howard, American Dream(to achieve

Charley, Bernard, Oliver, Miss financial success
Francis

Exposition, rising action, climax, the conversation that takes place

falling action, resolution among characters in a drama

tragedy 1940’s, Brooklyn New York

CHARACTERS
1. 4. 7.
2. 5. 8.
3. 6. 9.

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 1.

4. 5.

PLOT

3. 2.

SETTING THEME

DIALOGUE GENRE
_ _

Activity 2
Direction. Arrange the following events accordingly by placing a number before each letter.
A. Willy takes his own life for his family to be able to get some money from his
life insurance and make the final house payment
B. Willy Loman returns home early from a business trip as he’s unable to
make sales and nearly crashed the car several times
C. He visits his boss, Howard to ask for promotion from a traveling salesman
to a floor salesman in New York but just gets fired
D. Charley becomes unnerved by Willy's hallucination and leaves.
E. Biff thinks that he may try again to work for Bill Oliver, for whom he worked
years ago but quit after stealing a carton of basketballs from him

Activity 3
Direction. Put a check (✓) on the blank if there is a faulty logic/reasoning in each of the
following. Otherwise, put an x. Be guided by the types of faulty reasoning below.

Overgeneralization-drawing a Illogical conclusion- Personal bias-basing

conclusion based on too little making an inference that conclusions on opinion rather
7
data is not supported by data than information. Personal
bias can lead to conclusions
that are actually contradicted
 1. Biff is a football star so he would also be a star in life.
2. Willy is a bad father; he had an illicit affair with Miss Francis.
3. Willy is not really well-liked because only Charley and his family got to his funeral.
4. Biff flunked in math because he didn’t study.
5. Willy took his own life due to depression; thus depression can really kill people.

Activity 4
Direction: Determine whether each statement about the characters is a factual or a value
judgement. Write A for factual and B for value.

Note: “Factual judgment” is a judgment “Value judgments” express statements of

based on observed facts or quantitative opinion based on personal preferences,
analysis. relative morality (all moral judgments are
-these are observable and value judgments)
verifiable information
-these are subjective and
-not debatable debatable

Ex. 1. She is 5’3 tall 2. Willy is 63
years old already (these are verifiable,
so these are factual judgments
- If you make a value judgment about
something, you form an opinion about it
based on your principles and beliefs and
not on facts which can
be checked or proved.
Ex. She is too smart. 2. Killing drug addicts
is not bad (these are subjective and
debatable, so these are value judgements

1. Willy got depressed because of his inability to cope with the real world.
2. Biff is kleptomaniac.
3. Howard is the best among Willy’s friends.
4. Happy is a wiser and better son than Biff.
5. Linda provides Willy with unconditional love and care, and treats him with “infinite
patience.

Guide Questions
1. Who is the salesman in the story who was going through some personal and
financial difficulties?
2. What is/are the problem/s that led the main character to depression?
3. What did Willy’s son do after their mother had told them about their father’s true
mental condition?
4. What is it that Biff stole from Oliver, his boss that made his chance to work for him for
the second time is impossible?
5. Why did Willy get angry with Linda when he saw her mend her stockings?

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Activity 5. Direction: Write T if the statement is true and F if not.
1. Willy is a traveling salesman.
2. Biff stole his boss' expensive pen.
3. Howard is a successful
businessman. 4. Happy is the elder son
of Willy.
5. Bernard is Willy's son who became a lawyer.

Reflection:
Directions: Write A if you are agree and D if you are disagree in each of the given
perceptions. Explain your answer in 3-5 sentences paragraph.

1. To succeed in business or in life, one needs only to have a likable personality

2. The struggle to provide financial security for the family after years of working as a
salesman highlights the falsity of the American dream
3. Ability to accept change within oneself and society is necessary
4. If you were Biff and found out that your Dad had a mistress, would you also get
unmotivated to finish your studies? Why?
5. What could be the things to do to improve one’s mental condition?

Rubric for scoring

Grading Rubric for Writing Sentence Criteria (Reflection)
Excellent 5
Nearing Standard 4
Improving 3
Emerging 2
 Grammar - The rules are followed; verb tenses are used correctly.
 Sentence Fluency - The sentence expresses a complete thought. It is easy to
understand. The sentence partially expresses a complete thought. The sentence has
a few errors. The sentence does not have a complete thought.
 Conventions - No error in punctuations or capitalization
 Spelling - All words are spelled correctly.

References:
Anglo American Literature p. 544
https://www.sfponline.org/uploads/300/Reasoning.pdf
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/value-judgment
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-examples-of-value-judgement
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/d/death-of-a-salesman/summary-and-analysis/act-i-
scene-2